On the renewed Apple and Jay-Z record label rumors

It's baaaaaack. The prospect sounds great, but the plausibility doesn't add up …

Speaking of which, the "Apple + Jay-Z to kiss, make baby record label" rumor is back once again. Multiplesources are anonymously "confirming" the company's joint effort with Jay-Z, who just stepped down as Def Jam's president, and that an announcement could be made as early as this month's upcoming Macworld Expo. The hook is that the music, TV, and movie studios are already treating Apple and the iTunes Store as competitors, so now is a great time for Apple to make its move into production and distribution territory. With a market in so much flux, artists making more money than ever from their own art by ditching big labels, an Apple-run label that pumps straight into the iTunes Store, and the most popular DMPs on the planet sure seems like a good idea.

That said, we would be crazy if we didn't loudly question the plausibility of an Apple record label. Sure, the company recently buried the hatchet with Apple Corps and now retains ownership over all "Apple" trademarks, allowing the computer maker to do what it likes in terms of music distribution and products. But a move like this couldn't possibly put a smile on the faces of already-established record labels who control—and essentially own—the vast majority of popular artists—the very artists that dominate iTunes Store charts. I'm not privy to the terms of the contracts these labels sign with the iTunes Store, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were some kind of non-compete clause or, at the least, "if you piss us off" clause. If Apple were to unveil a dyed-in-the-wool record label and potentially begin stealing artists and revenue from the labels, these fickle companies could conceivably pull their catalogs out of the iTunes Store faster than Mariah Carey can check back into rehab.

Don't get me wrong though. I'm as intrigued as the next happy iTunes Store customer at the prospect and market-changing possibilities of an Apple record label. It could potentially pay artists quite a bit more for their art by cutting out the traditionally-greedy middle man, and even more music would likely go DRM-free through the iTunes Plus program. I'm just concerned that the greater market and political forces wouldn't allow such a move from a company that, in many ways, still needs the very studios that it would be looking to snuff out.